Whenever anything dramatic happens, one this is for certain, you can first expect a massive flurry of propaganda from the corporate media.

I’ve already been reporting on some of the ongoing propagandistic coverage of tonight’s Venezuela referendum here and here.

Here’s the latest morsel of propaganda, this time from the good folks at AFP:

“Unlike in past elections, there were no European Union or Organization of American States election monitors” (source)

Now, to be fair, the AFP article does point out that despite the lack of EU or OAS observers, ‘international observers invited by the government’ have overseen the referendum, but this is stated as if it is a consolation prize.

From this article, one would get the impression that there was only hand-picked, minimal election oversight from the international community.

The stronger Chavez tries to control, the more out of control he will become. Fidel Castro ran one of the most successful dictatorships of all time, and he did it buy keeping the people on his side. Most people will except whatever rule is put upon them unless you try to control to much to fast, then they rebel.

However, in the case of Chávez, he really is popular because he has done so much to help the poor and oppressed at the expense of the traditional elites, WITHOUT resorting to undemocratic or unconstitutional means.

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